Using Work Values To Guide Career Decisions

Work values determine which characteristics feel essential or important for you to have in the day-to-day activities you perform in your work. People are happier at work when their work values are aligned with their career/job.

The first steps in evaluating your work values are to name them and to prioritize them. It is unlikely that you will get everything you want all at once, so you have to be willing to decide what is MOST important to you.

Some values are mutually exclusive, meaning if you have one, you are unlikely to have another, at least during the same period of time. Examples of mutually exclusive value pairs are Fast Pace vs. Leisurely Pace, Privacy vs. Recognition, and Change vs. Predictability.

Here’s how to use this list.

– Skim the list once through.

– Quickly choose the FIVE values most important to you.

– Look for any contradictions between the values and reflect on what it means if you want two things that usually don’t go together.

– Of the five you chose, rank them from most important to least important.